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One day in the seventh year of the Yongzheng Dynasty, the emperor looked at the war report from Xinjiang and was so angry that his head was dizzy.
"This Yue Zhongqi is so incompetent! This time, 7 deputy commanders were actually killed! While denouncing the incompetence of the front-line generals, the Yongzheng Emperor lamented that there was no one available in the Great Qing.
Zhang Tingyu, a scholar of the university, knew the difficulties of the Yongzheng Emperor, and he immediately reminded the emperor:
"Emperor, the most important thing now is not the war in Xinjiang, but the silting of the Huai River. Once the water transport is cut off, I am afraid that the whole world will be shaken. ”
"It's easy to say, where can anyone take care of Xu now? Who has this responsibility? ”
The Yongzheng Emperor asked helplessly.
"The minister is willing to raise one person, but this person is now a death row prisoner, as long as His Majesty dares to use this person, he will be able to pass through the transportation first, and then determine Xinjiang, and become a generation of Ming monarchs." Zhang Tingyu kowtowed and said.
Yongzheng Emperor's eyes lit up, and he immediately asked Zhang Tingyu to say who was guaranteed. Zhang Tingyu dipped his finger in tea and wrote three words on the ground, and the Yongzheng Emperor understood it, and the two monarchs immediately smiled.
Yongzheng's ideals and realistic helplessness
The Yongzheng Emperor was arguably the most underrated emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and the most painful thing in his life was that his reign was too short.
His father the Kangxi Emperor reigned for 60 years, and his son the Qianlong Emperor controlled the Qing Dynasty for 63 years, and the Yongzheng Emperor was sandwiched between only 13 short years, which is indeed easy to overlook.
However, he was the most diligent emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and without his excesses and contributions, there would not have been a complete Kang Qian prosperous era.
Yongzheng was 45 years old when he ascended the throne, with rich political experience and a restrained and steady personality.
As soon as he took the throne, he began to carry out drastic innovations, trying to reverse many of the problems caused by Kangxi's neglect in his later years. Among them, the Yongzheng Emperor's determination to fight corruption was very resolute.
In the early years of the Yongzheng Dynasty, the emperor successively seriously investigated and dealt with corruption cases in Shandong, Huguang and other places, and a large number of court members killed their heads and imprisoned them.
And the Yongzheng Emperor's methods were extremely ruthless, and he not only punished criminals, but also had to sit together with the families of criminals. After Li Yuanlong, the prefect of Dengzhou, was arrested, the Yongzheng Emperor immediately ordered his home to be raided.
After that, the imperial court found that the Li family's wealth was not enough to make up for the local deficit, so the Yongzheng Emperor ordered Li Yuanlong's descendants to pay back the debts for generations until the deficit was made up. For a time, the atmosphere of corruption in the imperial court was boosted.
Later, in order to further consolidate his rule and also crack down on lawbreakers, the Yongzheng Emperor also followed the example of Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang in compiling the "Great Edict", and personally compiled a copy of the "Great Righteous Jue Lost Record" for distribution throughout the country, patiently introducing how he ingeniously tortured those lawbreakers.
Many corrupt officials privately called the Yongzheng Emperor "the emperor of the household", for fear that he would be connected by the emperor because of a trivial matter.
However, no matter how the Yongzheng Emperor suppressed the rebellion, there were still high-level corrupt officials who emerged.
In the sixth year of the Yongzheng Dynasty, Actun, a member of the imperial court and former governor of Liangguang and general of Guangzhou, was impeached for embezzling taxes and silver from Guangzhou Customs and using his authority to blackmail ships from foreign countries in the South Seas who came to do business with China.
The Yongzheng Emperor was furious when he heard this, and immediately ordered Acton to be thrown into prison, and sentenced to beheading.
However, at this time, it was an eventful time, and the main thoughts of the Yongzheng Emperor were on the battlefield in Xinjiang, at this time, Gardanze, who ruled southern Xinjiang, continued to expand his power, and friction with the Qing became more and more frequent.
The emperor initially hoped to resolve the dispute through peaceful negotiations, but Gardanze refused. So the Yongzheng Emperor had to go to war against it, and after that, the Yongzheng Emperor, who was busy with military affairs, completely forgot the death row prisoner Acton in the prison.
The redemption of death row prisoners and the dredging of water transportation
The house leak coincided with the overnight rain, and just when the northwest war situation fell into disadvantage, there was an even more tricky bad news that Pegasus arrived in the Beijing Division. Fan Shiyi, the governor of Liangjiang, caused flooding caused by heavy rain in the south of the river, completely blocked the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and cut off water transportation.
Yongzheng Emperor couldn't help but gasp, he knew exactly what this trouble meant.
The economic center of gravity of the Ming and Qing dynasties was Jiangnan, which was the center of national taxation. The dispatch of resources mainly relies on the waterway transportation of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which is for water transportation.
If the transportation is cut off, Beijing will soon fall into a situation of no money and no food, and not only may the northwest front cause soldiers to mutiny, but even the large-scale shortage of grain will trigger the consequences of peasant uprisings in the north.
Therefore, before the treasury was exhausted, it was necessary to open up the transportation and restore water transportation to ensure that the imperial court's finances were replenished in time.
However, at this time, the Yongzheng Emperor was faced with no one to use.
Although the famous courtiers of the Yongzheng dynasty, such as Nian Xinyao, Ortai, Zhang Tingyu, Tian Wenjing, and Li Wei, who are familiar to the public, are all leaders for a while, these people are either entangled in affairs, or they are in a different place, or they do not have access to water conservancy, and they really cannot immediately rush to Jiangnan to control the floods.
Because of this, the Yongzheng Emperor was worried, and had to pour out his inner bitterness and helplessness to Zhang Tingyu, a university scholar. The loyal Zhang Tingyu saw that the emperor was so difficult, so he knelt down with a "poof".
The Yongzheng Emperor was taken aback by Zhang Tingyu's behavior and hurriedly said that he did not want to blame Zhang Tingyu and let him get up.
Zhang Tingyu kowtowed and said:
"The old minister is willing to raise one person to go to Jiangnan to dredge and transport. It's just that this person is now a death row prisoner, but if His Majesty dares to use this person, the minister guarantees that within one month, the fortune of Jiangnan can be used as a military salary to calm the northwest war, and His Majesty will definitely become a generation of Ming Jun. ”
The Yongzheng Emperor couldn't help but frown when he heard Zhang Tingyu's words, and he immediately asked Zhang Tingyu who he wanted to protect. Zhang Tingyu dipped his finger in tea and wrote the three words "Actun" on the ground, and the Yongzheng Emperor remembered that such a talent was still locked up by himself in the heavenly prison.
So the Yongzheng Emperor waved his pen and ordered Actun to be the minister of Qincha, and immediately went to Jiangnan to control the flood.
Acton knew that this was the best opportunity for him to make a contribution, so he was determined to do everything in his power to dredge up the transportation as soon as possible.
After arriving in northern Jiangsu, Actun first came to Huai'an, the hardest-hit area, where he personally inspected the actual situation of the blocked area and called local officials in charge of water conservancy to carefully study countermeasures.
Soon, Acton accurately identified the problem and proposed his own governance plan in detail in the fold to the Yongzheng Emperor.
Actun said that the problem this time is mainly due to the blockage of the 20-mile section from "Qingjiangpu" to "Huaihe estuary".
Dredging the river would be time-consuming and laborious, so Acton suggested that a new tributary should be dug next to it, so that the convoy could make a detour when it arrived, so that the task could be completed as quickly as possible.
The Yongzheng Emperor was very happy when he saw the twist and turn, and immediately agreed to Actun's invitation.
Soon, Acton excavated a new river curve, and the Jiangnan water transport smoothly arrived in Beijing. The Yongzheng Emperor was overjoyed and decreed that Acton be pardoned for all previous crimes, and prepared to continue to use this person.
The rise and fall of the two dynasties and the virtuous name of father and son
However, a new problem appeared before the Yongzheng Emperor. After all, Acton was locked up in the heavenly prison of the Criminal Department for a period of time, and the vacancy left by his conviction had long been filled by others, and it was obvious that Acton had no judge to be reinstated.
Just when the Yongzheng Emperor did not know what to continue to arrange for Actun to do, Actun took the initiative to write to the Yongzheng Emperor hoping to send him to the northwestern front to resist, and he was willing to go to the military camp of Gardanzer Zero to facilitate peace negotiations. This sentence reached the heart of the Yongzheng Emperor.
War is undoubtedly the most money-burning thing, the Yongzheng Emperor has already had the idea of resigning the army at this time, but he is forced by the face of the heavenly kingdom to not say clearly, and now Actun is willing to promote this matter, and the Yongzheng Emperor is very pleased in his heart.
In this way, after a long journey of more than four months, Actun reached Ili with difficulty and met Gardanze Zero.
Actun's proposition of "each striking and recuperating from the army" was accepted by the other side.
Although the two sides still disagreed on some details, the basic attitude was determined, and the northwest fighting was calmed.
Actun happily returned to Beijing to reinstate the Yongzheng Emperor, who was overjoyed and promoted him to deputy commander of the Manchu army under the blue banner.
However, not long after, the Yongzheng Emperor died violently, and his son Hongli succeeded him as the Qianlong Emperor.
In the third year of Qianlong, Actun again sent an envoy to Ili to pacify Gardan Tsezero and formally sign a peace agreement. With the merits of two trips to the west, the Qianlong Emperor named Acton as the secretary of the Ministry of Punishment and relied on as a confidant.
However, the companion king is like the companion tiger, and the moody Qianlong Emperor is not a good lord to serve.
In the thirteenth year of Qianlong, Actun accidentally made a typographical mistake in the compromise, and called the Qianlong deceased Empress Xiaoxian "Empress Xian", which caused the Qianlong Emperor to be furious, and Actun was once again deprived of all official positions and thrown into the heavenly prison and sentenced to imprisonment.
The ups and downs of the two dynasties also allowed him to participate in officialdom. Fortunately, Actun's many years of merit in saddling the country saved him, and after Qianlong's anger subsided, he took the initiative to release him again and continued to use it.
Actun was in charge of the Minister of Criminal Justice for ten years, and during his tenure, he basically achieved "justice in law enforcement" and was praised by the Qianlong Emperor.
In the twenty-first year of Qianlong, Acton died of illness, and the emperor decreed that he be buried thickly, and he was nicknamed "Wen Qin". In his later years, Acton had a thought-provoking conversation with his son Agui.
Acton asked Que what he would do with those who had committed mistakes if he was in power in the future. A Gui, who has a straightforward personality, immediately said that he would engage in the law and would never tolerate adultery.
Acton smiled bitterly, according to his son, he had died twice.
Actun admonished his son that he must be flexible, that rules are dead, and that people are alive. This phrase later became Ah Gui's lifelong credo, and allowed the family to continue to shine in Qianlong. The father and son entered the phase and became a pair of brilliant pearls in the prosperous era of Kang Qian.